I bought a stack of 100 stamps just before the latest increase in postal rates (thanks again, GWB) with the intention of making 50+ trades on TCDB. I had hoped to offload all 1,200+ duplicates in my trade box, but it seems I've hit a wall. There aren't a lot of active traders who want what I have, or have what I want.
The trades I've 'completed' lately have included damaged cards far too often. Some traders aren't getting back to me, while others have countered my trade offer because they suddenly can’t find what I asked for - or they just sold the card I really want (more on that later).
I can't even give cards away. Three days ago I offered up two free Pay it Forward 'trades'. One user replied right away and was very grateful. The other has checked into the site every day since - but still hasn't accepted my free cards.
Meanwhile, while I've been on break from blogging.. Night Owl has been hard at work sending his 250-card repacks to 20 lucky readers. Guess it's easier to give cards away here, huh? 😜
I wasn't one of the first 20 to comment (was visiting my mom in CT that weekend IIRC) but I made a comment that Night Owl appreciated and so he scrounged up a small 50-card sampler for me:
A pair of Packers starts off this pack. These are from 1977 Topps.
Some Red Sox, including a fantastic Lenny Green from 1966 Topps. It's card #502 in a 598-card set so I assumed it was one of those pesky high numbers.. but it's not listed as such on TCDB or COMC. Still one of the nicest vintage Sox singles I've received.
No Night Owl repack would be complete without some of his surplus Dodgers cards, including a Hideo Nomo Stadium Club RC and a shiny Clayton Kershaw (with A.J. Puk on the back) Love the Duke Snider Archives Reserve single, too.
More signature N.O. favorites here, including a Kellogg's card of A's catcher Jeff Newman, a Jim Wynn scratch-off game card, and a Willie Wilson food issue from 1983. The '78 Ron Guidry is a nice one as well.
Newer Topps singles, the cornerstone of any repack. The top three are from 2010 Topps Update.
This repack didn't guarantee a hit, and I didn't see the odds posted on the side. Guess I'm just lucky mine contained a Diamond haha. The Josh Johnson OPC black is very cool, and a pair of early '90s Oilers are a nice bonus.
(Mostly) non-sports singles here including '80s icon Molly Ringwald. The wrestling ladies are the exception, I s'pose.
Once again Greg, thank you so much for your generosity and for all you do in the card blogging community.
Kevin at The Diamond King also offered up some freebies recently. I thought I’d missed out on claiming a card there, too, but a couple days ago this showed up in my mailbox:
When I saw this shiny Schwarber I couldn't help but offer it a good home. Kevin was kind enough to oblige. Thank you Diamond King!
If I ever get my blog reboot off the ground I will have some type of freebie page as a 'grand re-opening'. Hopefully you'll find some cards worth claiming.
Back to that failed TCDB trade. I made a 4-for-4 offer, specifically for a Mikaela Shiffrin parallel. A few days later I got a counter offer with the Shiffrin card removed, as the guy had "sold" it and forgot to remove it from his inventory. Recent examples of the card in question have sold for about two dollars!
Until this year, the only Mikaela cards I could get my hands on were flimsy perforated singles from Sports Illustrated for Kids issues:
I think this was a blog freebie as well :)
Thanks to 2021 Upper Deck Goodwin Champions, there are now several Shiffrin singles to collect:
In fact I just spent $5 on four more Mikaela cards, which will probably stay at COMC HQ until after Black Friday, along with this..
.jpg)
This Luis Arroyo cost $3.25, and it's unofficially my 196th different 1956 Topps card (depending on whether or not I buy some more in the interim) I was hoping to hit 200 by my birthday but I'm going to fall just short of that goal.
I'm about to hit 900,000 career COMC Challenge credit points, and I've spent all of it. I'm going to try and save up all the credit I earn from 900k to one million and earn a high-end single or two absolutely free. Easier said than done. But is it easier than giving cards away on TCDB? We shall see...
Thanks for reading!
~
